Reducing City Costs
Posted by John B. Kalb - 2/18/08 @ 3:26 pm - Filed Under City Council
Per our city administration,”We can’t cut costs except by laying off policemen and/or firemen”. This is a political cop-out - to scare citizens into believing it.
How about reducing some of the less-important city jobs? Like:
1) Do we really need a Deputy Mayor and his office staff?
2) Do we really need 57 people in our Community Development Office? $2,750,678 in salary and benefits and how many $100’s of million did this one office drop on our city in future property tax obligations in the last year! Just the property taxes from Jefferson Pointe in 2008 that were diverted via TIF nonsense could have added $ 1,800,000 plus the $6,000,000 that was in this TIF before $4, 000,000 of it was spent to illegally buy properties in the Harrison Square area, or a total of $7,800,000 to city income - but no, “we are not going to let those funds be used for anything as mundane as funding our city operating costs !!”
So that “pitttance” of diverted property taxes from Jefferson Pointe could have funded the entire shortfall that our mayor and our controller are predicting will result from the state actions and the council’s previously passed budget “hold”! “But no, we will just threaten our citizens with a reduction in public safety personnel - that will shut them up!”
3) Do we need 44 people in Transportation Administration and Transportation Engineering? Dave Ross is filling both the City Engineering and the Transportation Engineering head posts at present - can’t some of these jobs be combined?
4) Savings should result in the planned merger of City Land Use Management and Zoning Department with Allen County Planning Services when and if this ever happens.
Looking at just Wages and Benefits, per the approved 2008 city budget, the total is $110,969,668. Of this $81,159,259 is for Public Safety, leaving $29,810,668 in the rest. If cuts are necessary, how about cutting both categories by the same percentage - if cut required is $4,500,000, then take $1,208,851 from “other” and the $3,291,149 from Public Safety.
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3 Responses to “Reducing City Costs”
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I think the numbers you’re crunching are the very same numbers our council is going to look at. My prediction? They will find a way to cut some token amount and raise the income tax by 1% to make up the difference…
They should be able to cut spending by 2% - 5% with minimal effort…
There is a fair amount of waste in our budget and I would be happy to help them find it…
Mike Sylvester
save $3.7 million by cuting back city cop overtime. a drowsy cop is a dnagerous cop. such as sgt bonar, and the dui nazis. he needs to get a life, and stop milking the taxpayers, and harassing social drinkers with his deranged vendetta. he needs to be “section 8′d” - he’s not right in the head.
running a business, you try to keep OT to a minimum, and limit outside jobs, so your employees can give 100percent, and not be tired.
working 3rd is bad enough, with its health hazards.
make do with the city cop cars we have for another year or 2. save 1.8 million. sometimes, even you and i dont get to buy new cars every few years, and have to drive our old ones, and keep them running, instead. And why gas hog impalas? malibus have higher gas mileage, and resale value, especially with fuel at 3-4-5 bucks a gallon.
and what of european police? they drive smaller cars still- fiats, vw’s, and such. We all need to tighten our belts( so our overweight cops can fit behind the wheel.
and what of random drug testing for all OUR city employees? urine drops, and hair follicle drug testing? every other boss demands it. we should too, of our city employees.
freeze everybodys pay. I’m not getting a raise, either, are yu? it just adds to higher taxes. what are thye going to do? quit? yea- and work at walmart? etc?
we need to take a hard look at where our city council spends our money, where our mayor budgets it, and where our city council persons trim the budget.
sometimes, you just have to do without.